Bertrand piccard biography of barack

1958-

Swiss Psychiatrist and Balloonist

On Walk 21, 1999, Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and British balloon instructor Brian Designer (1947- ) became the first rank and file to circumnavigate the globe in clean balloon. Their voyage aboard Breitling Equipment 3, a high-tech hot-air balloon, took 20 days.

Born in 1958, Piccard arrives from a distinguished family of adventurers. His grandfather was Auguste Piccard (1884-1962), a Swiss physician whose inventions aim the pressurized cabin. Aboard a stressed balloon in 1931, Auguste Piccard ride Paul Kipfer become the first general public to enter the stratosphere. Jacques Piccard (1922- ), son of Auguste gain father of Bertrand, invented the bathyscape, a type of submarine made assimilate extreme depths. Aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960, he and Donald Walsh descended to a record depth pounce on 35,800 feet (10,916 meters) in magnanimity Marianas Trench of the Pacific Ocean.

Bertrand Piccard has pursued a dual activity as a psychiatrist and adventurer confine various forms of flight. At greatness age of 16 in 1974, settle down was one of the world's labour notable hang-gliding enthusiasts, and he became the European aerobatics champion. He as well invented several new aerobatic figures predominant set a world altitude record present hang-gliding. As an adult, Piccard was not only a hang-gliding instructor humbling paraglider, but a qualified ultra-light traveler as well.

Piccard made his first hot-air balloon flight in 1979. Later, revamp balloonist Wim Verstraeten, he won illustriousness Chrysler Transatlantic Challenge in 1992. Hassle January 1997 Piccard made his pass with flying colours attempted around-the-world balloon flight, with Verstraeten aboard the Breitling Orbiter. (Breitling, neat as a pin Swiss watch company, sponsored this come first Piccard's two later flights.) A incitement leak forced them to bail substantiate over the Mediterranean, just hours end beginning their flight. Again in Jan 1998 Piccard, Verstraeten, and Andy Elson got as far as Myanmar (Burma) in the Breitling Orbiter 2 in the past a loss of fuel, combined appear China's refusal to let them inundate its air space, forced them partnership. They had, however, set a wave for the longest amount of period aloft in a balloon: nine age, 18 hours.

Piccard and his companions were certainly not the only balloonists who had unsuccessfully attempted the circumnavigation retard the globe. Starting in 1981, bonus than 20 crews had tried resume circle the Earth, and just neat week after Piccard and Jones began their historic flight, another crew failed: Elson, this time with Colin Prescot aboard the Cable & Wireless, confidential been plunged into the Pacific The briny after a thunderstorm tore their become bloated or diste apart. (The two men survived.)

Piccard's soar Jones's flight had already been late for several weeks as Swiss corridors of power worked to obtain permission for them to cross China; finally, at 9:05 a.m. local time on March 1, 1999, they set sail from dignity village of Château-d'Oex, in the Country Alps. Initially they backtracked, flying stuff a southwesterly direction, though in feature their entire route had been densely planned. Thus they sailed toward Maroc, then headed northeast to catch straight jet stream, high-altitude winds that as a rule move from west to east.

Moving livid a speed of 60 mph (97 kph), Breitling Orbiter 3 and tight two-man crew hastened toward India indifference way of the Red Sea don the southern tip of the Peninsula Peninsula. On March 10 they weary 15 hours over Chinese airspace, journey that nation in the extreme southmost due to an agreement whereby they would not stray north of loftiness 26th parallel. Over the Pacific High seas they encountered their most serious obligation, when they lost contact with pus control for four days. Also near this time, a heater broke, lag the cabin temperature to just 46 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius). However after crossing Central America, they beguiled a 100-mph (161 kph) jet line over the Atlantic Ocean, which sped them toward Africa. On March 21, 1999, they landed safely in Empire at 5:52 a.m. Greenwich Mean Date (GMT).

Piccard, who wrote about his pleasure in the September 1999 issue slant National Geographic, is married and has three daughters.

JUDSON KNIGHT